Ah it can always be better. Fun fact, 80% of Congolese cobalt is owned by Chinese companies.
Strong economies trade with weak economies. Ends up in a win win situation. China only became a strong economy through the trade with priorly developed economies.
So I'm going to ignore that argument a bit. Worst thing we could do for "global south" would be to stop trading with them. It'd be called sanctioning them.
Now, eh, we got our issues to tackle in Europe. But as someone who was born in 1995, I have seen how my society has transformed. Brussels in the 90s compared to today is day and night in terms of diversity.
Now you can always say like "there's racism!!! This is a shit hole to live in!!!"
But then.. come on, it's not that bad. I know 20% of Europe is voting anti immigration political parties. But these are usually the less educated folks.
Get educated, you won't even be in contact with them.
My wife's pregnant. Our kid will be indonesian-Belgian in ethnicity (or Chinese/Japanese whatever, she keeps being called Chinese in her own country lol)
So our kid will grow up in bit of a racist environment. No matter where we live.
Well, we have the privilege to live anywhere in the world that we want. My wife prefers Belgium.
I'll trust her judgement.
We can always improve, but we live in a pretty good place.
I'm saying that diversity takes time. I've seen Belgium go through different stages.
My wife's indonesian. You know what she'd be if she married an African guy? Disowned.
The Congolese in Belgium seem pretty wealthy, more wealthy than the Arabs in the same cities.
Perhaps linked to the source of immigration (economic immigrants with work visas) or their culture. Am talking bout Aalst specifically.
I don't have a clue about it at all, just trying to connect dots.
You can keep talking bout racism, will be beneficial for my kid in the future.
But don't have tunnel vision either. There's a lot of mono cultures out there in the world where there would be a lot of resistance to immigration. These countries would have to start from scratch when it comes to diversity. It's not like they'd be instant paradises.
Like china had their scandal with how they treated their minority in an area.
And Africa.. literal genocides as far as I'm aware.
Of course they are contributing to the culture. Enriching it with their own culture as immigrants.
They are strengthening the indonesian rupiah by Selling other currencies for it. Then they are spending idr on the local economy.
A developed economy is more expensive to live in. Gentrification just means that the area gets developed. The people that can't stay there economically are people without education.
This can be solved however with policy. Policies that aim at social mobility like here in the EU.
Tax paid education.
Indonesia is a tax paradise, very attractive.
Very cheap labour. Very young population.
My brain can't comprehend their cost of living, so I always tipped the Uber drivers in Batam with 100k idr. They often wanted to decline, but it's like the normal price of transport where I'm from.
I see a lot of international companies there.
Their poverty rate has been in decline since the 80s.
Can you tell me some areas in the world that are more multi-cultural and less racist than western Europe?
For example, Singaporeans are wilding about Indians coming to their country for economic reasons. Working day and night, outcompeting locals. Bringing in more Indians.
I've been outside of Europe, you know what I saw? A lot of mono cultures such as Europe in the 1900s.
You can go to the indonesian subreddit and you'll see them all speak Bahasa Indonesian. Reddit is banned in Indonesia. They still go there with VPN.
Chinese government is richer, they went after the VPNs.
Chinese citizens cannot be here, they cannot form a Lemmy instance where they speak mandarin to eachother.
Social media has to accept Chinese laws, which includes moderation by the government. They are only allowed to have political opinions that align with those in power.
Iran and America hate eachother. Completely different culture, etc.
My friend was born in Iran, his family did all the effort to get into Belgium. He'd rather be shot dead than to live in Iran. But he's also a bit loco. Saying he would nuke Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan if he had the chance. Edit:forgot his favourite nuke destination which is india
But that's just one guy. Sorry, had to include cuz random.
What most people would dislike about Iran would be the dress code. Girls protesting it and being arrested. For some reason never to be heard from again.
Just things that I would not want my wife or future daughter to live in.
My wife came from a Muslim dominated country, would be told to wear a hijab while she's not even religious.
She likes that she can wear whatever she wants in Belgium.
And now... Would I be allowed to say things like this in Iran, or would it be removed by their government employees? I have no idea about Iran.
I just know that us Belgians are allowed to shit talk our government as if it's a national sport.
Go to Belgium2 subreddit, everything is spoken in Dutch. Most of it is complaining about the government.
Le chat mistral told me differently. I'll have to talk openly about politics with a Chinese citizen before I change my mind.
It's not fucking normal that a country with such an economy doesn't have people on the global scene.
You have us, Europeans, you Americans, Aussies, Japanese, Indonesians (VPN), Singaporeans, ... All here talking to eachother.
Chinese? Nope. Great firewall of china. I couldn't even speak to my wife when she was in Shanghai unless it was on WeChat. Her emails were blocked. WhatsApp was blocked. The other phone she tried to use VPN on became completely useless.
China controls their population. Until enough Chinese citizens are able to tell me otherwise.
Brilliant economy, brilliant growth, but god damn, allow them to come out of their hole.
Got banned there by a dude with anarcho in his name. Cherry on top